General Counsel

By Jacques Kelly and Jacques Kelly,jacques.kelly@baltsun.com | January 12, 2009

Douglas W. Thiessen, a Justice Department attorney who was the Maryland Republican Party's general counsel, died Friday while on a ski outing in Mercersburg, Pa. The West River resident was 35. He and members of his family were skiing at Whitetail resort when he was found "unresponsive on the side of a ski trail," according to a spokesman for the resort. Mr. Thiessen did not respond to cardiopulmonary resuscitation and was taken to a hospital in Hagerstown, where he was pronounced dead.

Legg Mason Inc.'s new CEO, Joseph A. Sullivan, announced Tuesday a shake-up of his executive team and the exit of some top officials, including one who had been in the running for chief executive. Sullivan, a Legg insider who was named CEO and president in February, had been serving as interim chief executive after Mark R. Fetting stepped down in October. The Baltimore-based money manager in recent years has suffered from poor performance among some of its mutual funds as well as an outflow of investor dollars.

The Columbia Association has hired a Pennsylvania attorney and former Howard County schools activist to serve at its general counsel. Sheri V.G. Fanaroff, of Downingtown, will assume the $105,000-a-year position July 30. Fanaroff was vice president and general counsel for Academy Life Insurance Co. in Frazer, Pa. From 1993 to 1997, she worked for Alexander & Alexander, an insurance broker in Owings Mills. She and her family lived during that time in Ellicott City. Fanaroff was active in school issues while in Howard County, spending about 18 months on a citizens review committee that examined the county's middle school program.

Risselle "Rikki" Fleisher, a former general counsel to the Maryland Commission on Human Relations who was a legal advocate in civil rights cases, died Tuesday of breast cancer at Stella Maris Hospice. The Bethany Beach, Del., resident was 77. "She wanted to right any wrong," said former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. "She was a caring person who grew up at a time when things were happening that never should have. She worked to change that. " Born Risselle Rosenthal in Baltimore and raised on Mohawk Avenue, she was a 1953 graduate of Forest Park High School, where she was a three-letter athlete, her yearbook's features editor and homeroom class president.

In anticipation of a possible vote to remove Alison Asti as executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority, Asti's attorney released a letter yesterday defending a clause in her contract that would allow her to remain the agency's top attorney. The letter is a response to various potential arguments Asti has heard against the validity of her contract, said Andrew D. Levy of Baltimore's Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP. "Because Ms. Asti has not committed any act that provides the board with contractual right to terminate her employment as general counsel and director of development, Ms. Asti expects that the terms of her employment agreement will be honored by the board without the further involvement of legal counsel," Levy wrote in the letter to authority chairman Frederick W. Puddester.

Risselle "Rikki" Fleisher, a former general counsel to the Maryland Commission on Human Relations who was a legal advocate in civil rights cases, died Tuesday of breast cancer at Stella Maris Hospice. The Bethany Beach, Del., resident was 77. "She wanted to right any wrong," said former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. "She was a caring person who grew up at a time when things were happening that never should have. She worked to change that. " Born Risselle Rosenthal in Baltimore and raised on Mohawk Avenue, she was a 1953 graduate of Forest Park High School, where she was a three-letter athlete, her yearbook's features editor and homeroom class president.

As if their learning curve alone is not enough, members of the new Columbia Council who took office last week have inherited the remnants of a 2-month-old mess that thrust the Columbia Association's future into question. The homeowners group has no president, no general counsel and no vice president for community relations. Another vice president who normally oversees Columbia's 3,100 acres of open space has shifted roles and is serving as acting president. The unusual confluence of events has left the council's 10 members -- five of whom are new to the board -- facing decisions that likely will affect the long-term direction of the unincorporated city.

Otis M. SmithMichigan justiceOtis M. Smith, 72, the first black to serve on the Michigan Supreme Court and the first to be named a corporate officer of General Motors Corp., died in his sleep at his home in Detroit on Wednesday of prostate cancer. He retired from GM in 1984 as vice president and general counsel. He became one of the highest-ranking blacks in corporate America when Thomas Murphy, GM's chairman, appointed him as the automaker's top lawyer in 1977.At the time the corporation was under attack on several legal and regulatory fronts.

Morris E. Day, 94, former general counsel of the U.S. Rubber Co., died of congestive heart failure Dec. 20 at his home in Blairston, N.J. Mr. Dry went to work for the company in 1926, specializing in antitrust law, and was appointed general counsel in 1958. He was a founder and senior partner of the Manhattan law firm of Arthur,Dry & Dole, which was maintained by the U.S. Rubber Co. He retired in 1961. Mr Dry was also a Arbitration Association of New York, Born in Mexico, Mo., he graduated from the University Of Missouri and Harvard Law School.

The "family jewels" documents contain echoes of the present-day debate over domestic surveillance. A memo for the CIA's chief of operations describes a National Security Agency program that monitored "international commercial radio telephone conversations between several Latin American cities and New York." The goal was to track "drug related communications," the document says. In September 1972, the NSA asked the CIA to take over the program, according to the memo, but the reason appears to be redacted.

David M.F. Lambert Sr., a retired lawyer who had once been an FBI agent, died April 4 of a heart attack at his Crumpton home. He was 87. The son of an Episcopal minister and a homemaker, Mr. Lambert was born in Hartford, Conn., and raised in Cambridge and in a home on Southway in Guilford. He attended Gilman School and left his senior year to enlist in the Army Air Forces in 1943. Trained as a pilot, he flew missions in the Far East. After the end of World War II, he earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College in Hartford and a law degree from Cornell University in 1953.

An administrative law judge has dismissed allegations that the former general counsel of Ferris, Baker Watts Inc., Theodore W. Urban, failed in his supervision of a broker who was subsequently convicted in a fraud that cost clients millions of dollars. The judge's opinion, filed this week, could mark the end of the last federal prosecution into the trading scandal that revealed a lack of leadership, an unclear chain of command and missed opportunities to stop the scheme at the former Baltimore brokerage firm.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - American International Group Inc. has lost a top executive due to the government's limits on executive pay. AIG said Wednesday that vice chairman and general counsel Anastasia Kelly has resigned, effective immediately. Kelly left because of the reduction in her base salary that was mandated by the government's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, AIG said. Companies like AIG that hold government bailout funds are subject to restrictions including limits on executive pay; in AIG's case, that's the insurer's 100 highest-paid employees.

Maryland energy regulators extended hearings Friday on Constellation Energy Group's proposed nuclear joint venture with a French utility, likely delaying yet again a decision on the fate of the deal. Additional hearings are scheduled for Oct. 14, and Oct. 15 if necessary. That means it's unlikely that the Public Service Commission will make a decision by its Oct. 16 deadline, even though the commission has tried to accommodate the companies' concerns over the timeliness of the deal's closing.

By Jacques Kelly and Jacques Kelly,jacques.kelly@baltsun.com | January 12, 2009

Douglas W. Thiessen, a Justice Department attorney who was the Maryland Republican Party's general counsel, died Friday while on a ski outing in Mercersburg, Pa. The West River resident was 35. He and members of his family were skiing at Whitetail resort when he was found "unresponsive on the side of a ski trail," according to a spokesman for the resort. Mr. Thiessen did not respond to cardiopulmonary resuscitation and was taken to a hospital in Hagerstown, where he was pronounced dead.

Patricia A. Roberts, a retired Environmental Protection Agency lawyer and an acknowledged expert on Maryland silver who volunteered at the Maryland Historical Society, died of multiple myeloma Dec. 10 at George Washington University Hospital in Washington. She was 66. Ms. Roberts was born in Baltimore and raised on Baker Street. She was a 1960 graduate of Western High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Morgan State University in 1964. After college, Ms. Roberts began working at the National Institutes of Health's laboratory on cerebral metabolism in Bethesda.

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday that it settled an accounting fraud lawsuit against four former executives at Waste Management Inc., the world's largest trash hauler, for $30.8 million. The company disclosed the settlement Friday, when it was approved in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Waste Management, based in Houston, said it would pay for almost all of the accord, or $26.8 million, to avoid continuing legal costs for its former officials in the three-year-old case.

New Positions Celsion names Finkelstein VP, general counsel Celsion Corp. appointed Anita J. Finkelstein vice president and general counsel. She joins the Columbia-based biotechnology company from Venable LLP, where she was a partner in the regional law firm. A graduate of Yale Law School, Finkelstein is also a certified public accountant. Banking and Finance BB&T appoints Scheller senior vice president BB&T Corp. appointed Rick Scheller senior vice president, based at the Columbia offices.

Skelton steps down as McCormick VP Robert W. Skelton will retire as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary from McCormick and Co. Inc. after a 32-year career, the Sparks-based spice company announced yesterday. The retirement is effective Jan. 1. Skelton will be succeeded by W. Geoffrey Carpenter, the company's associate general counsel and assistant secretary. Skelton joined McCormick in 1976 and was promoted to vice president, general counsel and secretary in 1996. He was promoted to his current position in 2002.

The Maryland Stadium Authority is expected to discuss the possible removal of Alison Asti as executive director tomorrow afternoon in a closed session. Asti's removal has been anticipated since July, when Frederick W. Puddester, an appointee of Gov. Martin O'Malley, took over as chairman of the authority. Asti has said conversations with the then-incoming chairman left her believing that O'Malley did not want her to continue in the job. But tomorrow will mark the first time the board has gathered to discuss Asti's status, sources with knowledge of the meeting said.